The lockoff ate my seatbelt!

[abigaylebelle]

Thinking I was doing something right, I took my car to a carseat check. The police officer was very nice, but insisted that my 2 year old must be forward facing:thumbsdown:. So then he says the seat should be in the middle where it is a terrible install. I put the seat in and did the lockoff because it would be tighter. Then when I got home there was a rip like a run in pantyhose in the seatbelt. Do I need to have it replaced before a passenger sits there? My carseat is now outboard, rearfacing, with latch. It was one of the evil Britax ff lockoffs if that matters.

[Pixels]

I'm sorry you had such a bad experience at the check. I'm glad you knew better than what he was telling you!

Yes, I think that the seatbelt should be replaced before any passenger uses it (adult or for a carseat). The integrity has been compromised.

In the future, you don't have to use the lockoff if you lock your seatbelt another way.

[CPSDarren]

Your car dealer or their auto body shop should be able to tell you if the seatbelt needs to be replaced. If it does need to be replaced, most carseat checkup events should have insurance to cover this type of damage. Sometimes, carseats, retractors and seatbelts do get broken in the process of an installation. It's doesn't happen often, but it is possible. If you are sure it was the lockoff, it wouldn't hurt to contact the manufacturer as well.

[ketchupqueen]

If it needs replacing and your lockoff did it, I would DEFINITELY call the car seat manufacturer. That's something they would want to know about.

[brightredmtn]

Along the same lines I installed our Marathon FF with the lock off and now that belt forever has a kink where the lock off was. Think that's a problem or is that fairly common?

[Jennifer mom to my 7]

I know when I used that new lever thing britax lockoff (okay, it is an 06? decathlon) I did get an indent in the belt, but it went away. And a poster who posts here once in a while, and used to on obbc (kayskids?) found that if you pulled the belt really tight, then let it back a bit, and THEN locked the lockoff, it didn't cause damage to the belts (she has suburbans). I think we are all so used to tightening belts as much as possible and then locking lockoffs, that just making them "tight enough" and then locking the lockoff is foreign to us:o.